The Blue Trash Floof
by Amicus Cordis
Summary: Pidge gives Lance a space caterpillar to comfort him as he (hopefully) moves on from Allura. AKA why the trash floof turned yellow in Season 6. AKA why giving your crush a critter that can sense heartbreak is a bad idea. Two shot.
1. Chapter 1

With both hands spent keeping their occupant from flying down the castle corridor, Pidge was unable to properly knock and instead beat the door with her foot. A moment later, the door slid aside, and it took Lance all of half a tick to realize who it was and for his face to sour accordingly. "Coming back for round two?"

She released her hands. The blue caterpillar sprung from his prison, bursting against Lance's face fast enough to make him yelp and stumble back. The corner of Pidge's mouth twisted up. "He's pretty good at sensing heartbreak." The caterpillar moved slower now, rubbing his fluffy body against Lance's cheek as Lance could only watch with trepidation out of the corner of his eye. "And comforting for it. I'm sorry if we took the teasing earlier too far." Although she would be lying if she said it hadn't been a little cathartic.

Lance gave an uncertain pat, and at last relaxed as the critter continued to nuzzle his face. "Thanks." He lifted a hand to make a platform with his palm. The caterpillar landed there, allowing Lance to stroke it. "I guess I'm just not used to this whole seeing someone I like go so hard for someone else thing. I just, I want her to be happy, and if she's happy with someone else, fine I guess, I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to do with all these feelings."

"Yeah." What was he telling her for? Pidge didn't know how to comfort him, especially about this, that was the entire point of bringing the caterpillar to do it for her. "I need to get back to helping Hunk with the particle barrier, but he can stay with you, if you want."

Lance rubbed a finger on the caterpillar's belly, and upon receiving a high-pitched, almost purr-like trilling, grinned for the first time Pidge had seen in days. "I think this lil guy'll come find some space juice with me."

She started for the lab. "You better be a better influence on him than you are on Kaltenecker."

* * *

Only Allura and Lotor were going into the rift, yet Shiro insisted that all of them be in their armor to watch the event from the castle bridge. For Lotor's sake, she reckoned. He was their ally and they needed to maintain an image of professionalism, Shiro would reason. As if Lotor had any notions of their professionalism after he learned they blasted a reprogrammed sentry into space on a robeast coffin.

Pidge had attached all of the upper pieces of armor and was working on her legs when the armory door opened. Jeaned legs stopped in front of her bench. Lance, not even in his undersuit yet, with his arms behind his back and a lip gnawed between his teeth as he watched her. He still had not spoken by the time she finished, so she propped her hands behind her, leaned back, and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Yes?"

He took in a deep breath, easing forward onto his toes so that he seemed to be lifting into the air, then let it out just as slowly, coming down once more. "Okay. So, Azure and I have been bonding, right?"

"The Blue Lion took you back?"

"What—No, Azure, your trash floof! So we've been bonding, exploring the ship together and junk." With his hands trapped behind his back, he could not talk with his arms, and instead rocked back and forth on his heels. "And we were, y'know, messing around with this Altean tech that we kind of broke, but before we broke it, we, uh—" He brought his hands forward. "It's a hair dyeing thingyjig so."

Pidge stared at the dazed critter laying in his palms, then up to Lance. "You turned him yellow?"

"On accident. I'm really sorry, but he's still okay!"

She lifted her own palms to receive the caterpillar, then delicately set him on her lap. His eyes flit around, uncomprehending, and the tiny marks on his cheeks blinked rapidly in his distress. She stroked his back until the flashing slowed. "If you bring the dyeing thingyjig to the lab, I'll fix it next chance and we'll change him back."

"So, you're not mad?"

"No. It's not like it actually hurt him, even if he's a little stunned." When she looked up, Lance looked surprisingly relieved, and she tried not to think about how he expected her to go off on him. "I'm going to take him back to his green pal right now so he can recover while we do this rift thing, but you can have him back after if you want."

The relief turned into something almost too bright to look at, yet too beautiful to look away from, and then without warning he had enveloped her shoulders with his arms and was pressing a sloppy kiss to her cheek with an emphatic and unnecessary _Mwa!_ when he released her. "You're amazing, you know that?"

She shoved him back and wiped traces of saliva off with her arm. "And you're gross."

His beaming smile was short-lived, as the door opened and Allura strode to her own armor. Lotor following her. Pidge's chest hollowed with the fall of Lance's face. She stood, cupping the yellowed caterpillar in her hands as she shuffled to the door. With it closed behind her, she rubbed two fingers against her cheek.

Azure flew up from her hand to nuzzle against her face.

* * *

A/N Originally, this was it. Then I wrote a sequel because reasons. All the pining, but with extra humor, so, slight tone change? Thanks for reading! Next part coming soon!


	2. Chapter 2

Having feelings for one of your best friends wasn't actually that hard. Not when that friend was Lance, at least, with whom everything worked together so naturally. Too often, she forgot that she even had unreciprocated feelings. Until those pesky moments—when he sang along to the song in his head, when he pulled off something bad-ass, when he got so excited he pressed his forehead to hers as if he could by the contact transfer his euphoria—where she wanted to kiss him. And couldn't.

Prime example. They were in the holodeck of Castle of Lions 2.0, both lying on their stomachs, propped on their elbows with Azure the Trash Floof and Allura's mice between them. The mice were arranging Azure's short yellow fur into dozens of tiny braids down his back. Lance was watching them, laughter only contained in the brief moments he needed to comfort Azure when the caterpillar's face marks would flash uncertainly. Clearly not a fan of the mice, but he trusted Lance and dealt with it.

Pidge would, on occasion, glance down to see the mice's progress. But mostly she watched Lance's face across the critters between them. His smile was pulled so wide it almost had to hurt. His damp hair was so close that she could see the tiny curls he would try to tame around anyone else. If he laid down just one of the hands supporting his chin, it would fall right on hers. And damn did it grate on her nerves that she could not think of anything else.

"I know it's still pretty short but I bet they could even braid your—"

He lifted his head. Their noses brushed.

They both whipped their heads aside as the door opened.

Allura gave only a brief wary look to Kaltenecker before her smile turned sweet and she stood above the small party with her hands clasped low in front of her. "So the mice are in here after all. What are you all doing?"

"Burning time before tonight's festival with bath day for all the castle's critters! Or almost all." Lance tilted his head back so Allura could better see the left side of his jaw, which sported a genuine Earth band-aid, one that depicted conceptions of dinosaurs from when people still thought they were all featherless and emaciated. "Char bit me when I tried."

Pidge had not had the heart to tell him that she had already given the caterpillars names. He had called the blue one "Azure" and the green one "Chartreuse" and so they had been called since, even when Lance accidentally dyed Azure yellow. They responded to the names, so, it worked. Pidge folded her arms in front of her and rested her chin on them. "They were living in a space dump for a reason."

"And with you they're still living in a space dump. How many trips to the healing pods is it going to take for you to realize you can't function somewhere so unsanitary?"

"I got sick _once_. Anyway, Azure wouldn't have submitted to a bath either if it had been anyone else." Two years since she had first handed Azure to Lance for the caterpillar's ability to sense and comfort against heartbreak, and though Lance had seemingly long since moved on from Allura, and anyone else for that matter, they were still like two genetically modified peas in a pod.

"It's just the Lance charm," he said with a wink and finger-gun in her direction. Damn her heart palpitations. _It's a joke._ He held a hand to the mice, who climbed aboard for him to offer to Allura as she knelt beside him. "These four were more than happy to comply."

The mice passed into Allura's hand. She lifted them close to her face, eyes widened as they chittered at her. " _Really?_ " she asked. Pidge and Lance shared a Look. Did the mice have to gossip about them _in front of them?_ Azure, at last free of the suspicious other creatures, flew up by Lance's head and hid behind his temple, side-eyeing the mice through his hair. The mice only chittered a moment more before Allura moved them to her shoulder, said, "Thank you both," blew a kiss to Pidge, and pecked Lance's cheek.

Red rushed his face as he darted a flustered glance at Allura.

Pidge's chest squeezed.

Then she yelled and rolled to the side when something collided with her face. She came up, spluttering out yellow fur, but this time held still when Azure nuzzled against her cheek. "Did you just fucking attack me?"

He continued to rub against her, undeterred, and Pidge lifted a hand to pet him—but it froze, almost squeezed the caterpillar. Lance stared at her, his eyes peeled back and lips parted for words that never formed. The silence grew long enough for Allura to ask, "Did I miss something?"

"I'mlateforacallwithMatt," Pidge said, words rushed together as she pushed herself to her feet and marched for the door, not slowing even when it closed behind her and the eyes left her back. "Fuck, fuck, fucking shit, fuck…"

* * *

"… shit, fuckity fuck, fuck, shit, shit, fuck, shit-fuck—fuck!"

"Got it all out of your system?" Shiro asked when Pidge stopped to breathe. She grumbled a nonanswer. "Want to talk about it?"

She was not looking at him, but at his prosthetic propped on her knees and the repairs it didn't need. "You don't want to have to deal with the dumb drama."

"You don't have to put down or mock your feelings, Pidge."

"Sounds like you already know what it is," she muttered. To which he only shrugged. Pidge exhaled deeply and at last released the prosthetic. He had not wanted a weaponized arm, or one with any special features for that matter, just an arm, which left little need for her handiwork. Distract as she might try with it, she hadn't really hidden in Shiro's room for the arm. Still, she stayed beside him and stared at the wall opposite his bed, because if she had to acknowledge that someone was looking at her, the words might refuse to come out. She had spent too many years keeping a trace of certain feelings out of her expression when others were around. "You know the yellow floof that follows Lance around? He cuddles with whoever he senses heartbreak from, which Lance _knows_ , it's the entire reason I let him take care of Azure way back when. But then, Allura kissed Lance, and it was just on the cheek and platonic and whatever, but Lance got all blushy, and I didn't react, externally, but… yeah it hurt and then Azure had to fucking dive-bomb my face. Which Lance saw so now he knows."

"What did he do?"

Pidge pulled her feet onto the bed, pressing her knees into her chest and digging her chin into them as her hands grasped at her ankles. "The amount of sheer awkward was overwhelming and I ditched before I could find out. If I had stayed I may have been able to play it off but too late now."

"What do you think you should do?"

" _Should_ do? Talk to him. Will probably do? Might as well finish updating the paladin armor to be compatible with Galra tech. It's only two years late." At last, she looked to him. The slight downward tilt of his chin spoke more than any words could. Not disappointed, exactly, in light of his smile, but he knew what she had to do and knew he did not even need to tell her. Didn't make it any easier, or stop the defensive flare in her chest. She buried it by burying her face in her knees. "I don't want things to change, I don't want him to see me differently, and I don't want to lose him."

The heavy metal hand landed on her shoulder. "You don't know that any of that will happen. Don't put words in Lance's mouth." He squeezed and rubbed at her shoulder until she twisted her head, now laid on its side on her knees so she could look at him. "Humor me. What's the worst thing that could happen?"

"He can't handle being around me anymore, I lose my best friend, we can't mind-meld and can no longer form Voltron, the remaining planets remain enslaved under Galra factions for another hundred years or so?"

If it were anyone other than Shiro, that smile would be patronizing. "And what's the most likely thing to happen?"

"It's awkward for a couple days, but he'll realize that nothing's really changed, and everything will go back to normal." A long, deep breath. "It will go back to normal." She released her ankles and dropped her feet back off the bed. "Thanks for getting me out of my head."

"I've helped Matt do it since we first started at the Garrison. You Holts think too much."

"Man, the flight to Kerberos must have been hell." Pidge hopped to her feet and faced the door. "Okay. Doing this before I can psych myself out again. Just gotta rip off the band-aid. Thanks, Shiro." His encouraging thumbs-up followed her as she marched out of the room. "Ripping off the band-aid. Ripping off the band-aid."

Lance was neither in his room nor with Kaltenecker. But Pidge passed Allura on her way to the Red Lion's hangar, and the princess told her, with a knowing smile that made Pidge want to throw herself into the nearest supernova, that Lance had gone with Hunk to the surface of Quogeth to join in preparations for the night's celebration.

Covered in invasive plant life, the Quogethian capitol did not have room for the Castle of Lions, which remained up in orbit. Thus Pidge flew the Green Lion to the surface, landing next to the Yellow Lion—Lance must have ridden with Hunk. The moment Green's jaw lowered, the open air hit Pidge's nose, and her sinuses took great care to assure her of how bad of an idea this was. The pastel and bioluminescent flora was nothing short of gorgeous even to her, but the Quogethian flower gardens would do a number on her allergies on an average day. On this day of arranging a life-size Voltron topiary to replace the sixty foot topiary of Commander Kayor? Pollen. Everywhere. She felt lightheaded before she had even stepped off the ramp, and she had not even entered the festival garden yet.

If she had not been so single-minded as to neglect putting on her armor, she could have just used her helmet to filter the air and thus spared herself. As far as Pidge knew, lions could not laugh, and certainly not robot lions, but Green was doing the closest thing in the back of her mind. Pidge rubbed at her itchy nose. "Shut up…"

The ramp did not fold when Pidge stepped off, but lifted to nudge her in the back, gently, which for a giant mecha cat was still enough to make Pidge stumble. "Thaaanks." The lion purred. Pidge straightened, marched into the garden. "Ripping the band-aid off, ripping the band-aid off. . ."

The failure to armor up became more and more obvious as civilians stared at her. With her head suddenly stuffy, it took far too long for her to realize they could not tell which paladin she was, if one at all. She was just a human, but one otherwise unidentifiable. It still meant little, but she felt painfully exposed when she finally found Lance and Hunk, watching the forming of Voltron from the center of the garden, both in their armor with their helmets tucked under their arms.

Her sneezes announced her presence, though by their lack of surprise, they had already seen the Green Lion coming down. Lance still looked like a deer in the headlights. Hunk lifted his free hand in greeting. "Hey, Pidge! Whatcha doing down here?"

"I—" A sneeze cut her off. The Voltron topiary with its color-coordinated flowers was being assembled a hundred feet away, but petals and pollen still rained down, dusting their hair and plaguing Pidge. A second sneeze when she tried to open her mouth. "Lance, I—" Third, fourth. Her eyes were starting to water and blur over, but she still saw Lance's shoulders hunch up at his name. Fifth, sixth. "Dammit! I'm—" Seventh, eighth. "—ripping the band-aid off!" Lance jumped, his eyes widening and hand slapping over the dinosaur band-aid on his jaw. She couldn't correct him, at last unable to stop and starting to get dizzy from lack of oxygen.

Hunk put his hands on Lance's arms, lifted him as if he were a cardboard cutout more than a man, and carried him past Pidge. She stumbled after him, even after Hunk set Lance down and gave him a hard shove to the back. "Go sort this out."

The push snapped Lance from his daze, and as they walked, he offered Pidge his helmet. It could not filter properly without the accompanying suit, but at least it could stop more pollen from raining on her head. Though being trapped in the helmet with her sneezing was a new kind of hell. They walked, far past the worst of Flower-tron's reach, to an area of pink leaves in the shapes of the leadership of the newly freed planet. The only flowers were at the base of the topiaries, arrangements spelling the names of the people that stood above them. The Quogethian writing system was simple and straightforward, so even from only a brief study hours before, Pidge could read that the tall and elegant Quogeth they stopped under was one Madame Miltri.

Within a few minutes, her sneezes had reduced to sniffles, at least enough for her to speak. But her head was still too stuffy to think of proper words, so all she could say was, "I'm sorry."

Lance was still straight as a cardboard cutout four feet in front of her, arms dangling awkwardly at his sides. "It's okay. I get it."

Pidge reached under the helmet and rubbed at her nose. "You do?"

"Yeah. Just, how long?"

"Since a little after we got into space." He had been the first one to ask about her family, on the way to the Balmera. So she had told him about Dad and Mom and Matt and Gunther, and he told her about the many McClains. After so long trying to be a Gunderson, with him it had been okay to be a Holt again. Sure she was a Holt with everybody now, but he was still first, which made her heart get the idea to go and do something dumb like develop feelings. "Which, probably sounds creepy, in context of everything with you and Allura, but it, really, wasn't—"

"No, no, like I said, I get it, more than anyone, even if I moved on a long time ago. Allura's great."

Those words didn't sound right, but, that might just be her congested head. "What?"

"And you're great too, really great, I mean, you're amazing. You're so much fun to be around, seriously killer sense of humor, and your passion is contagious, and how devoted you can get to something, like your cyber-projects or finding your family or hell even cleaning Kaltenecker today, you make people care just by caring yourself, and you're really pretty and—" He stopped himself, _thank god_ , because laying on the compliments wasn't going to soften the blow any. Pidge wanted to hear these words in any other context. Lance braced a hand on his hip and with the other rubbed at the back of his head. "Plus you're like the smartest person ever, and brains plus leadership is ultimate power couple material. Heck, if we weren't benevolent you could even rule the universe. My point is, if you want to pursue a relationship, I think you have a chance with her."

"You think she has feelings for Allura?!" Madame Miltri yelled.

As one, they jumped, and stared into the depths of the topiary for a glimpse of yellow and white in the leaves. "Hunk!"

"Sorry."

The bush rustled, presumably their friend leaving out the other side. When Pidge looked back up to Lance, he had fixed her with an interrogative stare. "So if you don't have feelings for Allura, then why did Azure. . ?"

Band-aid. Rip it off. "Because Allura kissed you and, and you got all blushy and stuff!"

"That was because you saw!"

She would never try to have a talk in a garden again, because she was too lightheaded and nothing was making any fucking sense. "Why would that make you—?"

"Oh my god, he reciprocates, Pidge! He has for, like, a year!"

"Hunk!"

"Sorry."

No bush rustling this time, just silence, in which Hunk's words fought through the sinus-induced haze on Pidge's mind and squeezed out any subsequent thought. Even when Lance loudly clapped his hands together and pointed them at her, she could only stare at him. "Okay, so, if you don't like Allura, and you felt bad that you thought I still like her…"

"Uh-huh."

"…and Hunk says that your feelings for me are apparently the same ones I have for you…"

"Uh-huh."

He paused, nervously licked his lips. "…I like you, and. . . you like me."

"Yeah…"

"We both like each other. Romantically."

"Yeah."

"We have mutual feelings for each other that are non-planetonic in nat—"

 _"Palen-bol!"_ The cry was immediately followed by a stick that thrust out of the bush to smack Lance across the back. He lurched forward with an undignified shriek, stumbling over Pidge, who caught his shoulders and had to take three steps back before she could catch her footing to hold them both up, though not before his lanky arms knocked the helmet off her head as Lance struggled for something to grab onto, ending up with a hand on her arm and another on her neck.

The sudden action snapped her from her shock in time to join Lance in yelling, "Hunk!"

The offending stick shook at them.. "I'm not sorry!"

They both sighed, though Pidge's skin prickled, because she felt Lance's breath across her face. They were close. Really close. Which was fine, he was always up in her space, putting his face next to hers. But in light of recent revelations, maybe this time was a little different. He thought so too, judging by the blush that went all the way to his ears, and the way his lips twitched as if he were unsure if he were allowed to be smiling at her, and it was too damn sweet and cute and god she wanted to kiss him.

So she did.

* * *

A/N Then she sneezed in his face.

Thanks for reading! Feel free to come shitpost or scream about season seven with me on Tumblr!


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